First Book Plot Overview
In the first book, Homefront, Jeriel meets Scrappy, Mariel, and Princess Peridot, who form the basis of his heroic group. Having seen the dangers of the husks, Jeriel attempts to become king in order to stop them, but is opposed by Tarrin. While Tarrin initially wins the ensuing propaganda war, the arrival of the husks proves that he was secretly conspiring with them all the time, and leads Jeriel to realize the problem is much larger. First Act Jeriel at start is apprenticed to a leatherworker, Graham who dislikes him greatly, because he's got family ties to the Southern Kingdom. At the book's start, Jeriel has been sent to the Border Woods, because he protested Graham's racism. While there, he stumbles on a Southern Kingdom village, which appears to be eerily quiet. He enters it, explores, realizes they're very similar culturally, and then sees a husk. The husk has cornered a dragon, Scrappy, and Jeriel stops the husk, saving the two of them. Scrappy thanks him, Jeriel flips, Scrappy explains he's a talking dragon, and he needs a rider, to help him. The two mutually agree. *Jeriel sees husks in action, showing him they're the true threat. They need to do something horrible, like completely obliterate a village. Probably a Southern Kingdom village, as this both proves they aren't from there, that the danger is multinational, and helps the Mariel talk later. *He "fights" Scrappy (Really the dragon chooses him, and allows him to win). ** Because of this the mayor sends him to Linton to be trained, after knighting him. ** On arriving at Linton, Warrick realizes the mistake, and is about to jail him. However, Jeriel says that he can change the world, and Warrick believes him, keeping him in the Free Knights and training him. ** After a little training, Stirling is an ass. Tarrin appears, watches over everyone, which is part of why Stirling sucks. Foreshadowing, because Jeriel talks to him, since he's the main candidate for being the King, but Tarrin is as the anaconda: he don't want none. ***This is what finalizes things for Jeriel, and he decides that he needs to shut them down himself. Second Act *After Jeriel aces the skill based stuff in the Free Knights, Warrick sends him to find Mariel. *He talks to her about his plans to stop the husks, she sends him away because he's just a kid, not capable of anything. She doesn't believe in change. However, when Jeriel says that they're the real problem, and someone has to deal with them, because a villain can be killed, and that's change. *She calls in her friendship with King Esten's Line, and they go to talk to him about getting things done. Mariel, however, doesn't know the current heir, as that person has been locked away. Still, there's enough residual goodwill with The King that it works. **They go to meet the king, only to find that Tarrin is already there, and informs the king that it's no big deal. Jeriel pushes, and Tarrin claims he's already sent a force. **Jeriel asks if he can join the force, as a Free Knight. Tarrin says no, and says that the whole thing was just him saying something to keep the king pacified. He says that Jeriel needs to learn how to lead people if he's going to be worth anything. *They travel to the city to begin recruiting a new, "Freer Knights". This generally goes poorly, until they get a mysterious summons saying that an old friend of the king's (Princess Peridot as it turns out) needs help. **They break out Peridot and she tells them that they should go to where their message will be heard. They travel to the Broken District of Realmhold, where most of the disenfranchised citizens reside. Here the Spurned live, and their message is much more popular.